B.C. government backs down completely on smart meters

Photograph by: Keri Sculland
, Victoria Times COlonist

VICTORIA — The B.C. government offered an official compromise Thursday to the close to 60,000 residents holding out against smart meters, saying those who are willing to pay a meter-reading fee of about $20 per month can keep their old analog meters in place.

But the new compromise is a temporary one, with the government saying digital meters will have to be installed across all homes within about 10 years, at which time the certifications on the old analog devices officially expire.

“We are going to get to a point where everyone has a digital meter,” Energy Minister Bill Bennett said Thursday.

Bennett explained that those who don’t already have a smart meter will be able to either keep their old analog meters in place, or get a smart meter with the radio transmitting feature disabled.

“Some folks are absolutely opposed to having a smart meter. We could say, ‘thou shalt have a smart meter’ and we have decided we’re not going to do that,” he told reporters Thursday.

Bennett said people will only be able to keep an analog meter for as long as its Measurement Canada seal is valid. A ministry official said the seals on analog meters last for 10 years.

Bennett said after that seal expires, the remaining holdouts will be offered a digital meter with the radio transmitter disabled, which they can maintain for as long as they continue paying the extra meter-reading fee.

“We’ll allow people to keep their analog meters until they wear out, if that’s what they want to do,” he said. “But we’re moving forward toward our overall goal, which is to develop a smart grid in this province.”

The new measures are meant to accommodate customers who have expressed significant concerns about the radio signal emitted by the meters.

Bennett said the measures will not be available to those who already have a smart meter installed at their homes.

Sharon Noble, director of the Coalition to Stop Smart Meters, said what Bennett proposed Thursday was unacceptable.

“It’s encouraging that the government is finally seeing that we need some accommodation, that our concerns are justified. But I don’t think it’s gone far enough,” she said in an interview.

“I’m not satisfied with saying I can only keep my analog meter temporarily. And I don’t think many people will be,” she added.

“Neither are we satisfied with the idea that we’re going to have to pay not to have something dangerous put on our house.”

Bennett said those who opt out of a fully enabled smart meter — either by keeping their old analog meter or taking a non-transmitting digital meter — will have to pay a monthly fee of about $20. This is because BC Hydro would have to send someone out every two months to read the meter, as opposed to the smart meter, which uses wireless signals to transmit regular readings.

Bennett said those who hold onto their analog meters will also have to pay another yet-to-be determined administrative fee to compensate BC Hydro for maintaining an antiquated billing system.

And he said those who opt for the non-transmitting digital smart meter would have to pay an additional one-time fee of about $100 to have the radio transmitter in their meter disabled.

“We don’t think, in terms of fairness, that the 96 per cent of people that have taken smart meters should pay the cost of these two opt-out options,” he said, explaining all of the proposed fees would have to be approved by the B.C. Utilities Commission.

“So people who want to opt out can. They will not be forced to have a smart meter,” he said. “But they have to pay the costs.”

Thursday’s announcement comes a week after Bennett first floated the idea of offering the ability for homeowners to opt out of smart meters.

New Democratic Party energy critic John Horgan said Thursday’s compromise shows there was no need for the Liberals to have pushed an artificial deadline on the $930-million smart meter initiative.

“It puts the lie to the notion that we had to have every single house in British Columbia affixed with a smart meter,” he said.

“Clearly that wasn’t the case. We put people through undue stress and hardship, in many instances people buying barricades for their homes to keep BC Hydro contractors off their property,” he added.

“There are people who are legitimately anxious about the technology and they should have respected that from the start.”

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